They danced, and he drove her home that night in Avon Lake, Ohio. He said goodnight like a gentleman and went home himself. A few days later, he went back to college, and that was that. But he hadn't forgotten Norma Buswell. A year or so later he was back at her door, asking for a date.

She said yes, and it was the beginning of an almost uniquely long relationship.

Today, the Beans will celebrate their 80th wedding anniversary, proud of a family that includes a daughter, five grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren and five great-great grandchildren.

"I've always believed the Lord sent Hastings to my door," said Norma, 99. "I don't think anyone I know has had a happier marriage than Hastings and I."

They recounted their love story — which started at the height of the Great Depression when Herbert Hoover was president — wrinkled hand in wrinkled hand.

"To think that they have lived all these years together and have gotten along so well and have shown the love between them," said their daughter Carol Fife, 77, of Eustis. "You don't see that too much anymore."

The daughter of a power plant worker and the son of nurses weathered the Great Depression, two world wars and an endlessly changing world together.